Choices within the bakery oven sector continue to improve and expand.

Stone ovens are an attractive option now available from Empire Bakery Equipment, which introduces its stone hearth deck ovens, all of which will help you save fuel and maintenance, while allowing you to produce delicious, artisanal baked goods. These stone ovens retain heat better than traditional ovens, according to Empire, and maintaining a consistent temperature throughout the baking process is as simple as ever.

Empire offers several different options, including the MiniTube stone hearth deck oven, which is a full-sized artisan quality oven that can fit in small space, and the LFKR artisan bread deck oven and LF Ultimate modern brick bread oven.

When floor space is limited and you want a genuine artisan quality oven, Empire’s compact MiniTube Stone Hearth Deck Oven is the perfect choice. Designed for the most discriminating baker, these small deck ovens produce exceptional quality artisan breads. Previously these benefits were only available on industrial ovens suitable for large wholesale production. But now, the MiniTube Stone Hearth Deck Oven gives you brick oven baking in as little as 51 inches x 78 inches.

The secret is in the advanced vapor tube technology that facilitates heat distribution and retention. Vapor tubes deliver heat evenly throughout the product zone, with no moving parts necessary to distribute the heat. This provides consistent quality from front to back, side to side, and deck to deck. In addition, each deck has its own self-contained steam generator, so there is no need for a steam boiler. With this small deck oven, you’ll save on fuel, space, and maintenance.

Substantial innovations

New from MIWE is the MIWE ideal e+, a deck oven that lives up to its name. The latest version of the tried-and-tested system features a wide range of improvements, in particular greatly reduced energy consumption, which helps bakeries to work more efficiently and in a more environmentally friendly manner.

The MIWE ideal e+ remains true to its roots and offers a number of substantial innovations in addition. These include optimized flue gas routing and improved vacuum control, which ensure uniform, reproducible baking results. A newly developed steam system takes efficiency to a new level by using just the right amount of water. This leads to perfect baking results while minimizing water and energy waste.

Another special highlight is the MIWE variobake system, which now enables even more sensitive temperature control. By combining a modulating burner and intelligent control logic, bakers can use the baking characteristics of different oven types to their advantage and perfectly bake a variety of products, from delicate, sugary baked goods to robust rye bread. Depending on the setting of the baking program, this energy transfer can be designed, according to the baker’s wishes, either from very aggressive, for a wood-fired oven character, or gentle, for a ring tube oven character, to ensure the optimal baking process for the respective baked product.

Externally, the MIWE ideal e+ boasts a sleek design with clever features, including a large-format 10-inch touch display and electrically opening oven doors that simplify operation and make the oven ideal for automated production environments.

The assembly and commissioning of the MIWE ideal e+ have also been simplified to enable bakeries to get started quickly. Improvements such as an easily accessible installation module and a standardized, compact arrangement of the inner workings also make servicing easier.

When it comes to energy efficiency, the MIWE ideal e+ sets new standards. Thanks to improved insulation, an optimized raking system and reduced burner output, it’s the most economical ideal e+ MIWE has ever produced.

Wide variety of options

More than ever, food manufacturers are facing multiple challenges. They must be able to adapt to market demands to offer varied products of consistent quality, while maintaining their industrial performance in a context of energy crisis, labor shortage and lack of visibility on inflation. They must also take into consideration the growing issues of environmental and societal responsibility. MECATHERM puts all its expertise into developing new equipment so that its customers can meet these complex challenges. It is based on this roadmap that MECATHERM developed its new M-VT vertical oven.

Specially designed for baking a wide range of products, it offers high product quality ranging from crusty bread to patisserie, pastries, and other soft products. Extremely compact, this new oven brings together a series of innovations that will support sustainable development, particularly in favor of energy transition. Integrating connected solutions, the M-VT vertical oven guarantees high industrial performance and facilitates its operation.

The oven can bake a wide variety of products: crusty breads, soft breads, patisserie products, pastries, brioche products and many others.

“In a context of unstable energy prices and therefore production costs, our customers are challenged on the industrial performance of their equipment, they also need to be supported on the issue of energy transition. We have therefore worked to offer them a highly compact and sustainable oven, ensuring optimal efficiency, precision and regularity of baking while consuming up to 30% less energy than a standard tunnel oven, for the same production” says Xavier Gotti, ovens product manager at MECATHERM.

One of the objectives of the new oven is to let manufacturers benefit from the advantages of vertical baking technology for a wide range of products, namely compactness and ease of operation. To do this, MECATHERM worked on a variety of aspects:

Completely redesigned pan handling system: The M-VT oven is equipped with a new shockless conveying system, creating a smooth rotational movement with swings, allowing the intrinsic quality of the products to be preserved while they are not yet solidified. The oven is suitable for all types of products, even the most delicate. It is also suitable for conveying heavy loads.

New airflow circuit design for optimal baking precision: Each module of the M-VT oven is independent and can be adjusted separately allowing bakers to set very precise baking curves.

Hygrometry control (patent pending): In addition to the temperature, air speed, and baking time parameters, MECATHERM has developed the Hygro Control System, an additional parameter for controlling the hygrometry in each baking chamber. This latest innovation, which is the subject of a patent application, allows operators to automatically reach the hygrometry setpoint. Precise management of hygrometry results in a more precise control of certain product characteristics such as its crust thickness, softness or water loss.

Compared to conventional cyclotherm ovens, MECATHERM’s M-VT vertical oven can reach up to 30% energy savings and allows significant reduction of the carbon footprint. This saving is possible thanks to several factors: Thanks to its vertical design, the oven housing surface is reduced, minimizing energy lost through the walls. The pan handling system remains inside the oven. This avoids any heat loss linked to conveying outside the baking chamber. Convection baking mode allows the M-VT oven to work at low temperatures, reducing energy losses through fumes.

Future Lab

In an industry dominated by tradition, the MIWE Future Lab breaks with convention and leads the bakery into a new era of efficiency and automation. Here, the boundaries of what is possible are expanded by integrating state-of-the-art technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence into the baking process.

A centerpiece of the Future Lab is the MIWE autonomous baking center (ABC), which is equipped with a floor conveyor system and a collaborative robot (Cobot). The last-named advanced helper is changing the way baked goods are made by automatically loading and unloading deck and convection baking ovens such as the MIWE condo and the MIWE FBC. But the Cobot does not stand for the replacement of the baker, but for valuable support. It takes over repetitive, physically demanding tasks, allowing bakers to concentrate on the creative and qualitative craftsmanship that makes their products unique. Combined with the floor conveyor, entire (rack) wagons can be automatically moved from the bakery cold into the oven and baked out again.

But this is only part of the innovations that the MIWE Future Lab has to offer. Another development is the MIWE voicebot. This intelligent voice control system transforms interaction with baking ovens. Using simple voice commands, bakers can intuitively control baking processes, making everyday work in the often hectic environment of a bakery or in food retailing (LEH) much easier. The MIWE voicebot not only helps to increase efficiency, but also increases production safety by minimizing the risk of human error.

The MIWE Future Lab is not only a testing ground for new technologies, but a steppingstone to a future in which bakeries can work more efficiently, safely and profitably. It represents MIWE’s commitment to not only help bakeries adapt to the modern world, but to actively lead them into the future.

Automation ready

Another new oven from MIWE is the MIWE roll-in e+, which is considered the heart of the bakery and has been continuously improved to meet the changing demands of bakers. The current model stands out for its unsurpassed energy efficiency, user-friendliness and baking quality.

The key elements that distinguish the MIWE roll-in e+ are:

• MIWE Heat Flow: An innovative technology that ensures consistently perfect baking results by providing precise air flow and temperature control in the oven.
• Optimized steam device: Ensures even steam distribution, improves the crust and texture of baked goods and enables a variety of baking options.
• MIWE aircontrol 2.0: Enables fine-tuned control of the baking atmosphere to achieve optimum results even with the most sensitive products.
• Energy efficiency: With its improved insulation and intelligent energy management, the MIWE roll-in e+ sets new standards in energy saving.
• Versatility for future requirements: With features such as MIWE variobake and the Booster, which support a wider range of baked goods while increasing quality and efficiency.

This article is an excerpt from the February 2024 issue of Supermarket Perimeter. You can read the entire Ovens feature and more in the digital edition here.